Hurricane Sandy Update – 1500 UTC 26 October

Hurricane Sandy continues to pose a significant threat to the east coast of the U.S., and the Hurricane Watch Net remains active for the foreseeable future on 14.325 MHz. PLEASE AVOID INTERFERENCE TO THIS NET DURING THE CQ WORLD WIDE DX CONTEST this weekend.

IARU Region II Area C Emergency Coordinator Arnie Coro, CO2KK, reports that Cuba’s hurricane nets on 80, 40 and 2 meters have secured as the storm has moved north of the island, leaving at least 11 deaths and hundreds of thousands of evacuations in its wake:

After more than 36 hours of hard work, the activities of our amateur radio emergency nets activated as Hurricane Sandy was approaching eastern Cuba were closed. The services provided to our communities was of great value and fully appreciated, gaining recognition on the mass media as an example of how volunteers are able to help in a very notable way.

The role of the HF bands, 40 and 80 meters, was extremely important to carry on the emergency traffic, due to the fact that several of the normally very reliable 2-meter repeaters were damaged by the storm’s very strong winds that at mountaintop repeater locations reached as high as 240 kilometers per hour (145 miles per hour).

Our big thank you and appreciation to all the radio amateurs in eight neighboring countries who offered possible relays when propagation was difficult on 40 meters. All of us who participated enjoyed excellently clean frequencies thanks to the advice and information provided by CQ Amateur Radio, the ARRL, IARU and several national amateur radio organizations in our area.

We did learn something new… that with solar flux at or above 150, 40 meters remained open for the short distances involved in the emergency nets!”

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

The Hurricane Watch Net (<http://www.hwn.org/>) has activated on 14.325 MHz as Hurricane Sandy churns through the Caribbean and continues to threaten the U.S. east coast. In addition, Arnie Coro, CO2KK, Emergency Coordinator for IARU Region II, Area C, informs us that hurricane nets in Cuba are active as the storm approaches.